Category: One World Religion

Ligonier Ministries and LifeWay Research has published their most recent State of Theology study, and the results show a confused collection of beliefs held by American Christians and especially evangelicals.

The study consisted of interviews with 3,000 adult Christians and follows similar surveys given in 2014 and 2016. Startlingly high percentages of respondents again revealed clearly heretical beliefs when they were asked about the nature of God and belief, their opinions on certain sins and the role of the Bible.

How much of this heretical belief is the result of poor education in Christian theology and how much indicates the influence of external cultural factors that are slowly warping what millions of Christians across the country believe? That remains to be answered, but the results of these questions show several interesting trends in belief following the previous surveys as well as demographic trends among generations.

To give an example of how the survey exposed heretical beliefs held by the majority of the Christians interviewed, 52% responded that most people are basically good, 51% believe that God accepts the worship of all religions and 78% subscribe to the Arian Heresy, which teaches that Jesus was the first and great being created by God the Father. In fact, Jesus is not a created being; He is God the Son.

Ligonier concluded that “Overall, US adults appear to have a superficial attachment to well-known Christian beliefs. For example, a majority agreed that Jesus died on the cross for sin and that He rose from the dead.” When examining issues of theology that go deeper than these basic Christian beliefs or ask the interviewed Christians to wrestle with difficult ethical issues, their reliance on popular opinion and cultural relativism became clear.

A majority of 59% stated that the Holy Spirit is a force, not a personal being, and most shocking of all, the survey showed that 62% of American Christians surveyed believe that “religious belief is a matter of personal opinion and not of objective truth.”

A majority still believes that salvation comes through faith rather than good works and although they believe in the doctrine of the Trinity, they also hold contradictory beliefs that put Jesus outside of the Trinity. The belief that Jesus was a created being is a heresy refuted and condemned at the Council of Nicaea in 325 and also at the Council of Constantinople in 381. This belief was held by 71% of Christians in 2016 and rose to78% in 2018, even though it has not been taught in any American church.

Only 52% of Christians identified abortion as a sin and as many as 38% declared it not to be a sin (others were unsure). Likewise, 41% of Christians interviewed believe that the Bible’s condemnation of homosexuality does not apply today. The effects of cultural relativism are clearly visible here across the spectrum of beliefs.

Christians who classify themselves as evangelical claim they see the Bible as the highest authority, but on other survey questions clear contradictions emerge as 30% of Evangelicals admit that the Bible is open for each individual to interpret as he chooses and as society changes.

In the end, whereas some questions seem to indicate increasingly heretical beliefs and others reflect more orthodox Christian theology, the majority of the survey exposes a deep confusion about Biblical theology in general. As Christians interviewed were easily swayed by changes in question phrasing or the inclusion of certain popular “catchphrases” a general lack of theological knowledge was apparent.

Clearly, there is more work to be done not only to identify as Christian but truly to engage with what that means; to educate ourselves not just on a few theological touchstones or fixate on a few words, but to really understand the Bible as the Word of God.

Spirituality is now firmly placed in mainstream culture. The growing interest in astrology driven by millennials, as well as the popularity of crystals and tarot cards via the ballooning wellness industry, have brought mysticism from the fringes, and right into your Instagram feed.

However, as the cosmetics giant Sephora recently found out, mysticism and its more formal manifestation, witch culture, are not topics to be taken lightly. When the company tried to commodify and condense witch-related practices into a “Starter Witch Kit,” they managed to piss off a bunch of actual witches, forcing the kit’s manufacturer to apologize and pull the product.

The kit was clearly aimed at dabblers in witchcraft, rather than those who actually practice it, which was perhaps part of the miscalculation. Data on the existing population of self-identified practicing witches suggests that a robust—and growing—witch community exists.

By the numbers: witches, Wiccans, and Pagans

Though the data is sparse, what we do know is that the practice of witchcraft has seen major growth in recent decades. As the witch aesthetic has risen, so has the number of people who identify as witches.

The best source of data on the number of witches in the US comes from assessments of the Wicca population. Not all people who practice witchcraft consider themselves Wicca, but the religion makes up a significant subset, as Alden Wicker noted for Quartz in 2016.

Wicca is a largely Western religious movement that dates back to the mid-20th century in the US and UK. According to the site wicca.com, it’s a belief system informed by “pre-Christian traditions originating in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales,” that promotes “free thought and will of the individual, and encourages learning and an understanding of the earth and nature.

Birgitte Necessary, who describes herself as a Green Witch from Washington State, defines the religion similarly, explaining it as “a deep adherence to nature and natural law, an attention to the cycles of the earth and the lives within it.” As a Green Witch, Necessary adds that her practices mostly revolve around the plant kingdom and herbal healing.

While the US government does not regularly collect detailed religious data, because of concerns that it may violate the separation of church and state, several organizations have tried to fill the data gap. From 1990 to 2008, Trinity College in Connecticut ran three large, detailed religion surveys. Those have shown that Wicca grew tremendously over this period. From an estimated 8,000 Wiccans in 1990, they found there were about 340,000 practitioners in 2008. They also estimated there were around 340,000 Pagans (pdf) in 2008.

Although Trinity College hasn’t run a survey since 2008, the Pew Research Center picked up the baton in 2014. It found that 0.4% of Americans, or around 1 to 1.5 million people, identify as Wicca or Pagan—which suggests continued robust growth for the communities.

Data on Wicca identification is ever sparser in the UK, the other country with a significant Wicca population. A 2011 government census found that there are 12,000 Wiccans in England and Wales, but previous surveys didn’t collect data on the group.

The rise of witchcraft

“Witch Hill” is an 1869 painting depicting a girl found guilty of witchcraft on her way to the gallows in Salem.

Witchcraft had a long and complicated history before the wellness and beauty industries became recently obsessed with it. Witches have been a fixture in the popular imagination for centuries: And from Snow White to The Crucible to Melisandre in Game of Thrones, beauty, sexuality, and the quest for eternal youth have been baked into our perception of witches.

That perception is also, of course, tied to a bloody history of persecution of witchcraft’s practitioners, and the term “witch” itself has been used as a multipurpose misogynist slur. It’s perhaps that centuries-long perception that has led modern-day witches to reclaim the term, and even coalesce into a political movement.

Some modern witches, such as Courtney Brooke, place themselves in a subset of witches that adhere to a feminist dogma and identify specifically as “feminist witches”:

The mainstreaming of mysticism makes sense when you consider how it overlaps with the interests of the millennial women. As Wicker noted, witchcraft is the perfect religion for liberal millennials who are already involved in yoga and meditation, mindfulness, and new-age spirituality. With that foundation, they might show up for pagan holidays or new moon gatherings, or begin to explore the more serious spiritual concepts at the root of these practices.

The Hoodwitch, for example, is a bona fide witch influencer, with 329K Instagram followers, who practices “everyday magic for the modern mystic,” and appears at events like LA’s BeautyCon to do tarot readings:

The numbers on Wicca and Paganism may well undercount the total number of witches. Indeed, as Necessary notes, some witches reject Wicca in its current form as “a new age less-than-perfect reinvention of witchcraft.”

But whatever the exact number is, it’s clear that witches are among us—and the current trajectory suggests that their population will continue to grow.

Amanda, a 28-year-old Los Angeles resident, used to go to church every Sunday.

She still prays nightly and believes in Jesus, but now she has her own rituals.

“I’ll chant, or I’ll go to Kundalini (yoga) and meditate with a group,” said Amanda, who did not want her last name used because she’s afraid religious groups will target her.

She’s also into crystals.

She keeps a bunch on her nightstand and stows a small bag of them in her purse or backpack during the day.

“The energy they hold is this ancient energy,” she said. “It helps your own energy when you work with them, when you’re near them.”

Amanda wasn’t one of the respondents in a new Pew Research poll. But she fits right in.

The poll shows that beyond a small band of reliably predictable “Sunday Stalwarts,” as the survey calls them, American religiosity is pretty casual, with less than a quarter of Americans attending worship services weekly but nearly all religious groups adhering to some New Age beliefs.

The poll, which grouped 4,729 Americans into seven types, found that though few Americans reject God altogether, most Americans mix traditional faith with beliefs in psychics, reincarnation and spiritual energy that they say can be found in physical objects such as mountains, trees and crystals.

Taken in December, the poll examined beliefs and behaviors that cut across many denominations using a method called cluster analysis, which produced seven broad religious typologies. The researchers gave these types pithy names such as “Spiritually Awake” and “Religion Resisters.” Those who believe in no God Pew dubbed the “Solidly Secular.”

Overall, only 23 percent of Americans attend worship services weekly, and only one group — the “Sunday Stalwarts,” who make up about 17 percent of the population — attend in overwhelming numbers. These include mostly Christians but also Jews, Muslims and Hindus who may attend on other holy days.

In addition, the number of Americans who say they read Scripture daily, at only 11 percent, is strikingly low, and those who say religion is the most important source of meaning in their lives make up only 20 percent of the population.

By contrast, New Age beliefs pervade all seven American types identified in the survey.

“New Age beliefs are something we see many group members hold,” said Becka A. Alpert, research associate at Pew, who worked on the poll. But she added, the study cannot explain why.

Fully 41 percent of Americans believe in psychics including 32 percent of “Sunday Stalwarts,” the most traditionally religious group of all.

Forty-two percent of Americans believe spiritual energy can be located in physical objects. Smaller shares believe in reincarnation and astrology.

The group with the most New Age beliefs was what researchers called the “Diversely Devout.” This group, which makes up 11 percent of Americans, consists of Protestants and unaffiliated Americans, the so-called “nones.” Among this group, solid majorities have New Age beliefs.

This is the group that snaps up “smudge sticks” or “sage bundles” — material for ritual or spiritually cleansing burning — and invests in crystals and gemstones touted as possessing energy capable of helping people heal from emotional, physical or spiritual pain.

Other practices such as yoga, meditation, reiki, ayurvedic medicine — not all New Age — are fast gaining practitioners.

“New Age practices are unstructured,” said Jeffrey Kessler, a Jew who is the president of his Berkeley, Calif. congregation Chochmat Halev but also teaches tai chi, and engages in somatic healing, which combines psychotherapy and various physical therapies to heal trauma. “There’s no authority. People can pick and choose and explore. I think of it as a spiritual freeform way of beginning to connect to something other than oneself.”

Mark Chaves, a sociologist at Duke University who studies American religiosity, said he’d want to look at other surveys to see if the Pew numbers for New Age beliefs are particularly high.

But he added: “It does strike me as interesting that belief in supernatural-ly kinds of things is more prevalent among the conventionally religious.”

The Pew poll also found plenty of traditional religious measures:

* 56 percent believe in the God of the Bible.
* 61 percent believe God will judge people based on what they’ve done.
* 77 percent say God or a higher power has protected them.

But only 33 percent of Americans say it’s necessary to believe in God to be moral and only 31 percent rely on their religious teachings “a lot” to help them make decisions about right and wrong.

Some scholars have argued that society is not necessarily becoming more secular; instead traditional religions are giving way to new forms of spirituality that are supplanting, but not always replacing churchgoing.

That was the thesis of a 2005 book, “The Spiritual Revolution: Why Religion is Giving Way to Spirituality.”

That makes sense to psychotherapist Stephanie Anderson-Ladd of Durham, N.C. Ladd works with women who feel alienated by patriarchal religions and helps them connect with the divine feminine through goddess archetypes that can serve as models.

“A lot of people have been turned off by organized religion,” she said. “They’re exploring alternative ways of being a spiritual being on a human path, as much as a human being on a spiritual path. We’re open to many different ways to understand the divine.”

All this serves man for fuel: He takes some to warm himself, And he builds a fire and bakes bread. He also makes a god of it and worships it, Fashions an idol and bows down to it! Isaiah 44:15 (The Israel Bible™)

Thousands of people wearing bizarre costumes dance around a huge burning effigy that represents Celtic human sacrifice. Scattered around the pentagon-shaped camp are various makeshift temples to pagan gods. Moving through the crowds is a huge seven headed serpent. No, this is not science fiction or even a pagan festival held in some far-off land. This is the annual ten-day Burning Man Festival that will be held in the Nevada desert in three weeks.

Every year, the Burning Man Festival takes place in the late summer in Black Rock City – a temporary city erected in the Black Rock Desert of northwest Nevada. First held 32 years ago in 1986 as an intimate artists’ gathering on Baker Beach in San Francisco, the festival now attracts more than 70,000 attendees every year.

Though the organizers claim the festival is not religious in nature, there are several elements that appear regularly at the festival that are firmly rooted in idolatry. A 70-foot long seven-headed red metal dragon on wheels named for the ancient Egyptian god Abraxas, is clearly intended to reference Satan as described in the Christian Book of Revelations. Festivals have also featured a papier-mache sculpture of “Lord Shiva Natarja,” a Hindu god described as “the cosmic ecstatic dancer.”

The festival culminates in the eponymous ceremony in which a large wooden effigy of a man is burned. This ceremony, referred to among Druids as the “wicker man,” is almost universal among pagan cults and evolved as a replacement for human sacrifice. This symbolic element came closer to its origins last year when a 41-year-old man committed suicide by throwing himself into the flames of the Burning Man effigy.

Rabbi Daniel Asore, a member of the nascent Sanhedrin, noted that the elements of ancient idolatry are clearly present in this modern-day gathering.The camp is carefully designed in a semicircle contained within a pentagon But when viewed from the air, it becomes clear that the angles are connected by lines creating a pentagram, the universal symbol of witchcraft and black magic.

“They are going out to the desert to recreate the giving of the Torah but they have replaced Mount Sinai as the focal point with the symbol of Satan,” Rabbi Asore told Breaking Israel News. “These people are not atheists. They are idolators. The difference between atheism and idolatry is that atheism denies God while idolatry is an attempt to replace God. They are trying to replace God.”

This year, the festival is going to be a strange mix of pagan worship and high-tech with the theme being “I,Robot,” focusing on artificial intelligence (AI). This theme will be reflected in the centerpiece structure, a massive wooden spiral temple dubbed Galaxia dedicated to the Greek goddess, Gaia. Galaxia is a name taken from a science-fiction novel by Isaac Asimov. In New Age mythology, Galaxia is the mother goddess corresponding to the Greek goddess Gaia, but on a higher galactic level. In mythology, Gaia is the personification of the Earth and the source of immortality. The worship of Gaia figures prominently in Neo-paganism.

“Technology is not, by nature, necessarily evil but it is often used as a temptation to distract people from the truth, to tempt them away from God by telling men they are greater than God,” Asore said. “In the case of artificial intelligence, this is clearly true. They will deny that God rules their lives but they welcome artificial intelligence. Even now, we carry around devices which ‘remind’ them of what they must do. It tracks their every movement and even tells them where they should go, when they need to leave, and what roads to take. This is not an aid. This is already bordering on mind-control.”

“The people who create this technology and the people who use it will deny that their intent is mind control. Truly modern people who were atheists would reject pentagrams and idols and believe there is no controlling power. The aspect of mind control comes from the idolatry giving control to dark forces.”

Murudeshwar is a coastal town in India. It is also one of the names of the Hixxxndu god Shiva, and the association of the town with this deity is evident in the temple dedicated to him and the colossal seated statue of Shiva, which is the second tallest statue of this god in the world.

Located in Uttara Kannada, a district in the southwestern Indian state of Karnataka, Murudeshwar (also spelled as Murdeshwar) is considered a holy place, and the reason for this may be found in the Indian epic, the Ramayana. According to this ancient epic poem, Ravana, the Rakshasa king of Lanka, is said to have been a great devotee of Shiva.

A Play for Immortality and More Power

In order to gain immortality and to increase his own power, Ravana began to perform penance to Shiva. Ravana was granted a boon, though he was tricked into asking for Parvati, instead of the Atma Linga (Soul of Shiva).

Realizing his mistake, Ravana began to perform penance again. This time, he received the Atma Linga from Shiva, on the condition that it should not be placed on the ground. To save the world, Narada (the sage who tricked Ravana the first time) intervened once more.

An illusion was created, which turned midday into evening. Seeing that the sun was about to set, Ravana wanted to offer Sandhya prayers. Yet, he was unable to do so, as he could not put the Atma Linga down. Suddenly, a young Brahmachari appeared before the king, and offered to hold the Atma Linga for him whilst he offered his prayers. Ravana agreed to this, and handed the Atma Linga over to the young man, who was actually Ganesha in disguise. Instead of holding the Atma Linga, however, Ganesha placed it on the ground.

Enraged by what had just happened, Ravana proceeded to destroy the Atma Linga. The king smashed the object into pieces and threw it away. One of these pieces is said to have fallen in Murudeshwar, thus turning it into a sacred site. On the spot where the fragment of the Atma Linga is believed to have fallen, a shrine to Shiva was erected.

Murudeshwar Temple Complex

As for the present temple complex, this was constructed in more recent times. Located on a peninsula, the temple is surrounded on three sides by the waters of the Arabian Sea.

Within this modern temple complex is the ancient shrine that was built to house the relic believed to be the fragment of the Atma Linga. Apart from this sacred object, the temple complex is also notable for its gopura, a typical architectural feature of South Indian temples.

An HDR image of the 22-storied Raja Gopura at Murudeshwar temple. Two life-size elephants in concrete stand guard at the steps leading to it. (CC BY SA 3.0)

These monumental gatehouse towers, which are normally sumptuously decorated with sculptures of Hindu deities and mythological figures, can be found at the entrance of such temples. The gopura is known as the Raja Gopura, and soars to a dizzying height of over 70 meters (229.66 ft.) Inaugurated in 2008, this gopura has 22 floors, and is fitted with lifts (the only gopura to have such a facility) to carry devotees up and down this monumental structure.

A Colossal Shiva

Another famous landmark in Murudeshwar is its colossal statue of Shiva. This statue, which is about 40 meters (131.23 ft.) in height, is located on the top of Kanduka Giri, a small hill close to the temple complex. This statue, which depicts Shiva in a seated posture, is often said to be the second largest statue of this deity in the world.

Like the temple complex, this statue is also a modern creation, and was commissioned by a businessman and philanthropist by the name of R. N. Shetty. The statue is placed in such a position that it would receive direct sunlight.

A new documentary called “The Heretic,” which centers on false teacher Rob Bell, is set to be released on March 1, and features a number of statements that are already raising concern, such as, “The Bible has caused so much damage” and “Jesus would be absolutely mortified that someone started a religion in His name.”

Bell explained in a Facebook post on Feb. 1 that he had been approached by filmmaker Andrew Morgan about creating a film surrounding his work and controversial views, which many decry as being apostate and heretical.

“A few years ago, the filmmaker Andrew Morgan approached Kristen and I about making a documentary film about my work. We have great respect for Andrew, so we said yes, and he began filming tours and RobCasts and events and interviews,” he outlined. “I can’t imagine just how much footage he captured. The result is a new film that he is preparing to release. It’s called ‘The Heretic.’”

Noting that Bell has “raised a lot of eyebrows” among Christians, the production features clips from both those opposed to Bell and those in favor of him, from Franklin Graham, who forthrightly called Bell a “heretic,” to Carlton Pearson, who praised the former “pastor” of Mars Hill in Michigan as being a “paradigm shifter.”

Pearson, a former pastor himself, lost his congregation nearly two decades ago after he came out with assertions that “Hell will not last for eternity.” While his views may not be exactly the same as Pearson’s, Bell’s bestselling book “Love Wins” claimed that the majority of Christian doctrine on Hell is “misguided and toxic.”

“Women’s rights, LGBT, minorities, love of our Muslim neighbors—if those aren’t all basics, we’re done,” Bell states in an interview featured in the documentary.

“The Bible has caused so much damage,” he also asserts. “In many ways, it’s often been an agent of dragging everything backwards.”

Bell additionally claims in “The Heretic” that Christianity is the opposite of everything that Jesus stood for, and alleges that Christ wouldn’t even have wanted religion to bear His name.

“[I]f you think about the religion that’s arisen in Jesus’ name, it is anti what Jesus was talking about,” he opines.

“What kept happening is when I kept going into the Jesus teachings, it took me beyond a religion to, ‘What does it mean to be human?’ And I actually think that Jesus would be absolutely mortified that somebody started a religion in His name.”

As of press time, the YouTube video of the trailer had generated over 42,000 views and Bell’s Facebook post had amassed 414,000 views. While some expressed excitement about the documentary and praised Bell as being “far ahead of evangelicals” spiritually, others reiterated that Bell is dangerously leading many astray with his teachings.

“Rob has no power to widen the path the Lord has made narrow,” one commenter wrote. “If you choose Hell, you literally will have to walk over Jesus’ body. If that happens, it is then you will see the error of your way and unbelief, but it will be too late. … The narrow gate by way of the narrow path that leads to life eternal but few will find. This is because they love their sin and do not accept sound doctrine, but instead heap upon themselves teachers who tickle their itching ears. For no man has the power to widen the path the Lord has made narrow.”

“Rob Bell tries so hard to make Christianity fit into a societal bubble, when he should be doing the opposite. It isn’t societal trends that determine what Christianity should be; it is God’s word. We shouldn’t be changing Christianity; Christianity should be changing us,” another stated. “Rob Bell gives pleasant answers, but runs away from the truth that so many need and desire. It’s truly sad, as I was a fan of his older material. Praying for you, Rob.”

2 Peter 2:1-3 warns, “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you, whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.”

2 Timothy 4:1-4 also exhorts, “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”

Evangelical leader Franklin Graham, son of Pastor Billy Graham, said, “darkness is spreading rapidly” across the globe — the sins of pornography, sexual abuse, drugs, religious persecution — and that the “forces of evil are” are doing all they can to “destroy the foundations of a morally healthy society.” He added that the light of Truth, which is Jesus Christ, will dispel the darkness but believers need to help spread this truth in their everyday lives.

“It’s our responsibility as believers to let our light shine before men, and to honor and glorify God by our good works and godly life, regardless of how evil the culture has become,” said Rev. Graham in his January commentary in Decision magazine, which is published by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA).

“The darkness is spreading—rapidly,” said Graham. There have been numerous reports of widespread sexual harassment and abuse, he said, “and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.”

“Online pornography use is at an all-time high,” he said. “Gay and transgender characters are now a common sight on television, even in programs for small children.”

“Atheists are Hell-bent on eradicating any mention of God in town halls, schools and sporting events,” said Rev. Graham. “Drug addiction, especially to new opioid painkillers, is an epidemic in many parts of the country, particularly in rural areas with high joblessness.”

“Abroad, the darkness is just as widespread,” he added. “Christians across the Middle East suffer intense persecution from Islamic terrorists and oppressive governments. In so many parts of the world, it’s never been a more dangerous time to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Franklin Graham then explained, as the Bible relates, that “moral and spiritual darkness” is the result of people rejecting God.

“Moral darkness invariably leads to unruly, disobedient living that defies God’s commandments and principles, setting the stage for lifestyles and behavior that eventually reap destructive consequences,” said Rev. Graham. “What I believe is happening today that I certainly haven’t seen in my lifetime is the incredibly swift spread of darkness across virtually every sector of our culture, here at home and in practically every region of the globe.”

“The Bible is clear that such moral chaos comes because people reject the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ,” he said.

The darkness of sin, the “moral and spiritual darkness” caused by rejecting God is a mirrory impression of Hell, said Graham, which is “not only the absence of light, but its complete, utter, total darkness.”

“The Scriptures call it ‘outer darkness,’ a place that is reserved exclusively for the Devil, fallen angels and unrepentant man,” said the reverend.

Those who walk in darkness do not know Jesus Christ, said Graham. “Jesus is the Light of the World.”

People who repent of their sins and follow Christ will be delivered from the “domain of darkness,” said Graham.

For the next several days, I desire to talk about the infiltration of New Age doctrines and practices in churches in America.

I have personally witnessed over 35+ years the gradual acceptance of New Age theology in a growing number of US churches.

There’s something happening in America that I am seeing more clearly in recent years. The USA is morphing into a Babylonian empire. It is quite troubling to behold. A spirit of madness is taking over a sizeable portion of the population. The group insanity is fueled by the population’s rejection of God and His commandments. A sizeable portion of the population has consciously chosen to believe a lie. Consequently, God sent them a delusion. When a nation becomes so perverse that God sends them a delusion, it is impossible for them to ever see and understand the truth. It is a sure sign of judgment.

As America becomes more Babylonian, so too is its religious system. When the Jews turned to idolatry, God judged Israel when they repeatedly over many years rejected divine warnings issued by prophets to repent and return to the Lord’s commandments.
God used Nebuchadnezzar in to conquer Jerusalem. The Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem in three stages, beginning in 605 BC and ending in 586 BC. Judah’s King Jehoiakim was forced to pay tribute – taxes – to King Nebuchadnezzar. Jehoiakim paid the taxes for the first three years, but stopped the tribute money in the fourth year.

Three years later, Nebuchadnezzar’s army invaded Judah again. King Jehoiakim died. Several years later, Jehoiakim’s successor was hauled off to Babylon. And a few more years later, Nebuchadnezzar put the squeeze on Judah and started deporting Jews to Babylon as slaves. The Jews remained in Babylon until Persia’s King Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon. Although they were officially under Nebuchadnezzar’s captivity for 70 years, the Jews’ return to Judah was gradual over many years.

During the Babylonian captivity, the prophet Ezekiel rebuked the Jews for their disloyalty to God and their infatuation with Babylon.

You can read it in Ezekiel 23. Let’s start with verse 11.

11 “Her sister Oholibah saw this, and she became more corrupt than her sister in her lust and in her whoring, which was worse than that of her sister.

12 She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and commanders, warriors clothed in full armor, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men.

13 And I saw that she was defiled; they both took the same way.

14 But she carried her whoring further. She saw men portrayed on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion,

15 wearing belts on their waists, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them having the appearance of officers, a likeness of Babylonians whose native land was Chaldea.

16 When she saw them, she lusted after them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea.

17 And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoring lust. And after she was defiled by them, she turned from them in disgust.

18 When she carried on her whoring so openly and flaunted her nakedness, I turned in disgust from her, as I had turned in disgust from her sister.

19 Yet she increased her whoring, remembering the days of her youth, when she played the whore in the land of Egypt.

When the Jews finally departed Babylon, they carried back to Judah more than their clothes and stuff. They took home a new religion – Judaism. I know this is difficult for many Christians to grasp, but God did not inspire the formation of Judaism. Judaism as we know it today did not exist when the Jews were taken into Babylonian captivity.

It was while in Babylon that the Jews developed a new religious system that was based on rabbinical interpretations of the Torah. The Talmud was conceived and birthed in Babylon. Indeed, Jews today refer to it as the Babylonian Talmud. Modern day Jews don’t read the Word of God. They read what the Babylonian rabbis said about the Torah.
There was something else the Jews discovered in Babylon and took home to Jerusalem: It was Babylonian secret knowledge acquired from the Chaldeans. It forms the core of modern-day Jewish mysticism known as Kabbalah. Kabbalah is the hidden wisdom of Jewish rabbis that was derived from ancient secret knowledge. The rabbinical hidden wisdom was combined with Babylonian secret knowledge into a Jewish theology that forms the core of modern Judaism.

The ancient Babylonians were an advanced culture known for their knowledge of science and advanced mathematics including geometry and trigonometry. The Babylonians also worshipped the planet Jupiter.

I’m sorry to shock all the hard-core Christian Zionists who are watching Morning Manna today, but modern-day Israel’s Star of David flag has nothing to do with King David and ancient Israel. The Star of David flag was inspired by Kabbalah. The star in Israel’s flag is the same star god condemned by God in Amos 5:26.

But you carried a tabernacle for your Moloch, and the image of your idols, the star of your god, which you made to yourselves.

In the New Testament, you can read about again about Israel’s star god. It is found in Acts 7:43.

And you took unto you the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which you made to adore them. And I will carry you away beyond Babylon.

I’ll be very direct with you: If you have a flag, pendant, poster, or any other item with the Israeli Star of David image, you have an occult image in your home, church, office, or on your body. Get rid of it.

How is this linked to my subject of New Ageism in American churches?

The Jews discovered ancient secret knowledge in Babylon. They developed a new Jewish theology while in Babylon. It is the rabbinical Talmud. With the Talmud comes Kabbalah, which is Jewish witchcraft.

As the Kabbalists have gained more influence in America over the past 50 years, America has become more Babylonian. This explains why America is morphing into Babylon. Is America end time Babylon? Are we fulfilling Bible prophecy? Perhaps. If America is, indeed, end time Babylon, there isn’t anything we can do to stop it. If America is not end time Babylon, we can stop the Babylonian process and reverse it by returning to bedrock doctrine of the Christian church. The preaching of truth will chase away darkness and apostasy.

New Ageism, witchcraft, the black arts, sorcery, the occult, paganism – whatever name you want to call it – has been in the world for thousands of years.

It was present in Old Testament times. Egypt’s Pharaoh had magicians, wise men, astrologers, soothsayers, and sorcerers who used secret arts to perform astounding feats, predict the future, and to interpret dreams.

In Isaiah 47:13, God told the Israelites to ask their astrologers, stargazers, and monthly prognosticators to stand up and save them from the judgment that would come upon them because of their idolatry and rebellion.

Today, we see and hear New Age terms and practices in many churches. People are adapting to it and accepting its presence. We should be outraged and rise up against it. I want to give you some buzzwords that you should be on alert for their presence in churches in your community – or present in ministries on TV and radio. This is not an exhaustive list, but merely a beginning of the terms and phrases being used by many church leaders.

The Burning Man Festival, held in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada in August, has chosen its centerpiece structure, a massive wood temple dedicated to the Greek goddess Gaia, that is just one of the many pagan symbols featured at the popular desert gathering.

The festival has certainly evolved from its humble beginnings over 30- years ago when 20 artists gathered on a Beach in San Francisco. The annual event is now a high-profile gathering that attracts over 70,000 to its isolated desert location.

The Burning Man organizers announced two weeks ago that they chose the design for the centerpiece temple of the festival. This year they will build a massive structure composed of 20 wood trusses converging as a spiral. In the center will be a large mandala, a symbol used by Buddhists as an aid in meditation. Designed by Mamou-Mani, a London-based French architect, the structure will be titled Galaxia.

Galaxia is a name taken from a science-fiction novel by Isaac Asimov. In new age mythology, Galaxia is the mother goddess corresponding to the Greek goddess Gaia, but on a higher, galactic, level. In mythology, Gaia is the personification of the Earth and the source of immortality. The worship of Gaia figures prominently in Neopaganism.

The architect was aware of the religious connotations of the structure but denied it was anything other than an aesthetic public gathering space.

“There is no religion, it’s a secular temple. It connects everyone from everywhere,” Mamou-Mani said in an interview with Reno Gazette Journal.

Rabbi Yosef Berger, the rabbi of King David’s Tomb on Mount Zion, disagreed, saying that the focus on religious symbols clearly revealed an intent.

“They are going out to the desert to hide what they are doing because they think God can’t see them there,” Rabbi Berger told Breaking Israel News. “They try to hide their intentions, claiming it is not religious, not idolatry, but their actions reveal their intentions at every turn.”

In fact, the organizers of Burning Man declare a central theme every year. These have included Dante’s Inferno and Fertility. Every festival culminates in the burning of a massive wood effigy based on the neo-pagan/Druid Wicker Man Ritual which replaced human sacrifice. At last year’s Radical Ritual themed festival, a man died after running into the huge Burning Man effigy.

The campground is one large symbol, its boundaries marked off by a huge plastic fence forming a pentagon, an occult symbol used by pagans to outline the five-pointed pentagram star.

Religious symbolism is also prevalent at Catharsis in the Mall, an annual event associated with Burning Man. In addition to a wood temple, the event held in November featured a large sculpture of the Indian goddess Shiva the Destroyer. The two festivals share a 70-foot long seven-headed red metal dragon on wheels. The dragon, named after the ancient Egyptian god Abraxas, was clearly intended to reference Satan as described in the Christian Book of Revelations.

Rabbi Berger accepted this idolatrous trend as a good sign, a necessary precursor to moshiach (Messiah). The rabbi quoted Ecclesiastes to illustrate his point.

The one no less than the other was Hashem’s doing; consequently, man may find no fault with Him. Ecclesiastes 7:14

“We are seeing wondrous progress: the return of the Jews to Israel and Jerusalem, Jews going up to the Temple Mount, the ingathering of the exiles, and the blossoming of the land,” Rabbi Berger said. “Coincidentally, the amount of evil in the world is also rising. We are seeing horrors today never encountered before, both manmade and natural. This is all a prelude and will surely produce something unprecedented.”

Avodah zara (idolatry) is one of the prohibitions included in the Noahide laws, a universal mitzvah (Torah commandment) incumbent upon Jews and non-Jews. Though idolatry seems to contradict modern values, David Nekrutman, the executive director for the Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding and Cooperation (CJCUC), believes that idolatry, as described in the Bible, is currently making a comeback in a different incarnation.

“When you use God for your own ends, that is paganism as practiced by the Egyptians and Mesopotamians,” Nekrutman told Breaking Israel News. “The pagan gods viewed man as lowly, used for their own enjoyment, and man placated the gods in order to get something out of them. The revolution from Abraham was that relating to God had nothing to do with man and everything to do with serving God. Serving God does not mean that he promises you an earthly reward.”

“Post modernism and secularism have a strong aspect of avodah zara. Secularism and materialism are a returning of the focus to ‘me’,” Nekrutman concluded.

Restoration of goddess of ‘extra-marital relations’ follows images of Athena, arch of Baal

Experts in Israel are expressing concern that the United Nations’ goal is warping toward the promotion of idolatry after word was released that the organization is playing a key role in the image of a third pagan god – the goddess of “extra-marital relations.”

“The promotion of pagan gods is certainly nothing new, and it again shows we’re all living in what I call ‘Opposite World,’” he explained. “It’s a world where most people do the very opposite action of what God has instructed. Our Creator tells us to have no other gods but Him, but folks do the opposite, honoring false gods.

“The Bible says Solomon, one of the wisest men who ever lived, built shrines to pagan gods such as Molech, a pagan god to whom people would burn their children alive in fires. It’s just sickening. Even God-fearing Christians today don’t realize they’re doing the very opposite of God’s instructions when they decorate trees with silver and gold and stand them up in their homes and churches every December. God personally says in the tenth chapter of Jeremiah not to do that precise heathen custom, and yet people have been tricked into decorating trees with all sorts of silver tinsel, gold garland and hanging ornaments, and they have no scriptural basis for it. For those interested in eternal life, we need to wake up and start obeying the instructions of our Maker, and stop all this pagan worthlessness.”

Temple of Baal, Palmyra, Syria, prior to its destruction by ISIS

Now Breaking Israel News confirms a third project is nearing completion, and it again has a theme of pagan gods, a point that has experts concerned.

BIN reported, “A UNESCO-funded project reproduced a statue of a lion, the third project of its kind the organization has supported, leading at least one rabbi to conclude that the real goal of the political organization is to promote an agenda that has always stood as Israel’s nemesis: idolatry.”

The report explains the third project is the Lion of al-Lat, an 11-foot-tall statue that was in the temple of “pre-Islamic goddess al-Lat in Palmyra, Syria,” which was damaged by ISIS.

The 15-ton statue later was moved to the National Museum of Damascus for reconstruction.

The report explains, “Part of the reconstruction of the lion statue was performed using high-intensity laser projection equipment adapted for large-scale 3-D printing in stone by the Institute for Digital Archaeology (IDA) in Oxford. Much of the Lion project was underwritten by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) through its Heritage Emergency Fund and by the European Union.”

There are several trains of thought regarding al-Lat.

“It has been conjectured that al-Lat was the pre-Islamic consort of the Arabian god Allah. Another theory is that al-Lat was used as a title for the goddesses Asherah and Athirat. It is believed al-Lat was the continuation of the earlier Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar Inanna; the goddess of sex and, in particular, extra-marital relations,” BIN said.

Rabbi Daniel Assur, of the Sanhedrin, which recently was reassembled in Israel, told BIN of the alarming sequence of events.

“The entire mission of the organization is to blur the differences between the nations in order to bring them all under one roof and one authority in a New World Order,” he said. “The truth is, as the Bible says, there are 70 distinct nations. The U.N. believes they can create nations out of thin air. Once they do that, they can say that there are many gods, even ones you can create by 3-D printing.”

He pointed out the U.N.’s long-standing and dominant anti-Israel bias. After all, it has voted to condemn the state of Israel more than all of the human rights offenders around the globe combined.

“Because Israel stands as proof of what a nation is and the concept of one God, the U.N. has a vendetta against Israel and is irrationally biased against us,” Rabbi Assur explained to BIN.

“They have a messianic vision of a unified government that will fix the world without God and without the Torah. This has always been the goal of idolatry, beginning with Egypt and continuing with the attempts of Rome and Greece to spread paganism across the world. Now we are seeing its modern manifestation.”

He warned, “The New World Order promotes that everything is one, genders are all the same, there are no borders between nations. They believe everything is one, except God.”

“The question confronting us right now is: Why would the United Nations be involved in resurrecting these occult images and icons of the past? Do they not understand what this represents – the false gods of child sacrifice and all kinds of abominations and perversions?”

He noted Athena was associated with the Semitic mother goddess Asherah, whose shrines God commands to be destroyed in Deuteronomy 12. Cahn also claimed the goddess was sometimes merged with Ashtoreth, the consort of Baal in some traditions. Thus, there is a relationship between the new statue being displayed at the U.N. and the sinister arch which was displayed all over the world

“The mystery of ‘The Paradigm’ and ‘The Harbinger’ is that what transpired in the last days of ancient Israel before its judgment is now manifesting before our eyes. We are replaying an ancient judgment cycle. One of the manifestations that took place in ancient Israel before its destruction was the appearance throughout the land of the gods, their idols, their altars, their images. That the images of the gods are now manifesting throughout America is an ominous sign. We are replaying the judgment drama.

“When Israel turned away from God, it turned to false gods and idols. So when a nation that has once known God turns away from Him, it always turns to other gods. It may not call them gods or idols, but the reality is the same. America was founded on the word of God. And inasmuch as it followed the ways of God, it has been blessed above any other nation in the modern world. But inasmuch as it has turned from its God and His ways, it has turned to other gods and idols. And unless it turns back, unless it sees revival, it will progress to judgment.”

Welcome

Revelation 1:3 "Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near".
Tommy Settipani,
Watchman for Christ